Today's event was the $1,500 Omaha hi/lo event. Play started at 5pm and I seemed to draw a stronger than expected table. There were 2 obvious weak players and the rest of the group was relatively strong. I got off to a great start increasing my stack from 3k to just under 5k in the first two levels. This is a huge jump in a limit tournament as the blinds are still relatively small in relation to the stacks. From that point on everything basically went downhill. The few easy marks at the table were gone quickly and my stack bled all the way down to 2400 chips at the 4 hour mark. I was able to hit a few hands and had the feeling I was getting back in the game and going to be up for a long run. However, I just had too many 2nd best hands and bowed out nearing the end of the 6th hour. The tournament drew a field of 833 players and I finished middle of the pack. It was a very nice starting field but unfortunately I just couldn't put anything together. When I busted out the guy who took me out had 15k in chips and was hitting everything, not to mention he was probably the best player at the table. Just to give you an idea he had 15k in chips and the next stack at the table was about 6k. I won't bore you with too many hands as not a lot of people reading this are going to have much appreciation of O8 but here goes.
Early in the 3rd level I am dealt a25j. The flop comes aa8, the aforementioned solid player leads out and I decide to raise with trip aces and a solid low draw to find out where I am at in the hand and possibly get a better low draw to fold. Another solid player calls my two bets cold so I am not terribly confident in my low draw anymore, and boom Mr. Solid makes it 3 bets so I put him on a8 with a flopped boat and call. Turn is a 4 giving me 2nd nut low and trip aces with a J kicker. Mr. solid leads out, I call and the other player just calls behind. At this point I think I may have the same low as the caller behind me as he doesn't make a raise here which would usually indicate nut low. River is a 10 and Mr. Solid leads again, the pot is quite big now and I know I am not winning the high but hope I am getting at least a quarter of the pot back so I call and the other player calls behind and tables the nut low with 23 and Mr. solid obviously had the a8 for the full house. That was a big hit to my stack. I just find myself getting so trapped in hands in limit poker, maybe I don't have the proper discipline to let hands go in this format. If this was pot limit and I decide to repot the flop the player behind me can not call a pot repot with just the low draw and I end up taking half the pot. I really need to refine my limit game because I think it is pretty full of holes.
Over the next few levels I make some minor gains only to have setbacks of the same amount. In level 6 I get this hand against Mr. Solid who is on a major tear at this point hitting everything in site. He raises from early position and I call with a3jj. Flop is AA2 and he leads out at the pot, with his preflop raise I know he has at least an Ace. I call and the turn is an 8 and he bets again, I call thinking if a low comes I may be able to table a live 3 for the low or again nail one of my kickers to fill up my boat. The river is a 9 and he leads again, and I deliberate making a crying call but fold my hand and he shows me a34k winning the whole way with the nut low draw.
The very next hand he raises again and I look down and find a23t with now a very low stack and I decide I am going to go with this hand and make it 3 bets which is over 50% of my stack. Flop comes QT8 and he checks to me, I hope he has missed completely and bet, he calls and I have committed, the turn is an 8 and I go all in hoping somehow my touch on the Ten is good but he calls and has a3qt for top two pair and I am drawing 100% dead and am out. I could have just called his preflop raise and when the flop came with two high cards just surrendered but I was getting very short and this was certainly a premium starter so I took a shot and it just did not work.
A hand earlier in the level I thought I was going to get back to healthy when I flopped nut nut draw with touch. I turn the nut low and bet the whole way, guy calls me all the way with the 2nd nut low and a gutter nailing the gutter on the end for half the pot. One of the hands that got me off to the great start was when I had AA22 in the sb and the board comes 2364k. I bet on every street and get called by the weakest player each round and he shows something awful like an a7 low and a busted low flush draw. This hand is just an example of how awful a lot of players play the game, unfortunately after him and one other player busted early my table was full of people who actually knew how to play the game.
As I have said before limit poker is ultra frustrating when things go badly.
Aside from poker I have done a little bit of degenerate gambling over the last couple of days. Last night I went and played some roulette and dropped $200 quickly missing on 10 of 11 spins on a wheel that showed i would have hit 8 of 14 of the previous spins....good timing indeed. Tonight I played some craps and was playing with a bunch of bastards who were betting the don't pass line but I came out ahead and made $300. Took $100 to roulette and missed all 5 of my $20 spins and called it a night. When I play roulette I am generally betting 10 numbers so to have missed on 15 of 16 spins is pretty outrageous odds when you should be hitting a number in excess of 25% of the time. So, overall even for casino gambling.
Tomorrow I am going to go and play the $300 Deepstack tournament at Venetian. I heard they had close to 500 entrants today. I final tabled there on my last trip but the field was much smaller. I will likely then play the $500 O8 there on Thursday as I am a glutton for being beat over the head in limit poker.
Other than that I haven't really done anything exciting. Had my first of probably many meals at Noodle Asia in the Venetian. I love it there, the best edamame beans and all their dishes are made super fast and fresh. Great noodle soups, stir fry type dishes, rice dishes, and even some dim sum. I'm sure I will be eating there again tomorrow before the tournament starts at noon.
I did have a roller coaster session on-line this afternoon before playing the tournament. I was up close to $600 in a couple hours then had a bunch of bad beats to end up slightly down and also just missed the money in my $100 multi. Overall though I am up about $400 on-line for the trip in very limited play.
Calling it a night and hope to play some better poker tomorrow.
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